Up until recently, most abdominal and thoracic procedures required major incisions in order to provide an ability to observe the body cavity and perform any necessary diagnosis and treatment. This invention relates generally to surgical instruments for use in minimally invasive surgical procedures. In general, instruments used in these procedures are of the closed shaft variety. Since these instruments usually cannot be disassembled, complete sterilization is not possible because microscopic pockets of tissue and blood are often left on the instrument even after completion of accepted sterilization procedures.
In order to insure complete sterilization of a closed shaft surgical instrument, the instrument must essentially be capable of disassembly into its major components so that the resulting openings are of sufficient magnitude to accept cleaning brushes. This insures that all surfaces of the instrument are exposed to the particular sterilization medium and any concern that the instrument is not thoroughly sterilized is thereby eliminated.